C. Thirunavukkarasu, founder of IPDS and the man Chennai Police have named as the prime accused in the alleged “Project Meghalaya” plot to poach TVK MLAs, has used his first long television interview after custody to place Loyola College, Chennai inside the story. The police file, so far, has treated him as a freelance operator. His own words will not allow that.
Speaking to IBC Tamil’s Shankar Sharma after what he described as 37 days in Puzhal Prison 2, Thirunavukkarasu said he was formed as a DMK student at Loyola, that he learnt “survey” on that campus, and that this has been his public identity for 26 years. He would remain a Loyola old student till his death, he said. “That college is where I learnt this.”
He grouped himself with other Loyola old students — P. Chidambaram, Dayanidhi Maran and Udhayanidhi Stalin.
Sharma asked the question investigators should now put on paper. Current students and old students, the anchor said, would want to know whether horse-trading can be done in Loyola’s name.
What Police Already Allege
According to Tamil Nadu Police, Thirunavukkarasu is A1 in a conspiracy, referred to as Project Meghalaya, to induce about 15 TVK legislators and destabilise the government of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay.
The case was registered on a complaint by TVK’s Uthangarai MLA, N. Elaiyaraja, who alleged an offer of about ₹35 crore to defy the whip on a motion concerning the Assembly Speaker, and threats when he refused. Co-accused named in the probe include Naresh of Tiruchirappalli and Thiagarajan of Medavakkam. Former DMK minister V. Senthil Balaji and his brother Ashok Kumar have been drawn into the same investigation. Thirunavukkarasu denies the FIR. Denial is not a reason to ignore the institution whose name he still sells.
Why Loyola Is Not A Backdrop
For years, Tamil channels introduced IPDS as a Loyola old-students survey organisation. In July 2026, when he was arrested, he was already on record as a former Loyola student while running down Vijay’s prospects. The IBC interview goes further. He does not describe the college as a degree on a CV. He describes it as the place the tradecraft was learnt and the identity was built.
That is relevant to a conspiracy investigation. Project Meghalaya, as police tell it, is not a street brawl. It is alleged political intelligence, approach lists, money talk and pressure on legislators. The accused has now said, on camera, where he claims that survey skill came from and whose badge he still wears. Chennai Police cannot close the institutional question by treating Loyola as scenery.
The College Has Already Admitted the Name Can Be Misused
On 14 December 2017, then Principal Rev. Dr M. Arockiasamy Xavier, S.J., issued a signed press release. Loyola College, or any unit on the campus, it said, had not conducted any electoral opinion poll in the R.K. Nagar by-election. Anyone who used the Loyola name for such a poll had done so without knowledge or permission. The college called it a “flagrant misuse of the name of Loyola” and “completely disassociates itself.” The same text went out in Tamil.
So the management already knows that election “surveys” have been run off its brand. It already knows how to issue a denial. What it has not done is issue that denial for IPDS and for A1 after he volunteered the pipeline on television.
That gap is not a public-relations problem alone. It is a lead. If the name was misused in 2017, investigators should ask who used it, through which old-student network IPDS was built, whether any campus unit, staff or official channel was cited to give the outfit weight, and why the 2017 disassociation was never repeated when the same survey brand collided with an alleged plot to topple the TVK government.
What the File Should Now Contain
Triplicane Police and the units expanding Project Meghalaya should record the IBC interview as a statement of the accused, put the 2017 press release on the case diary, and examine Loyola’s name, alumni network and survey branding as part of the conspiracy’s infrastructure, not as a sentimental footnote.
Rev. Dr A. Louis Arockiaraj, S.J., the present Principal, can still sign the sentence his predecessor signed in 2017. Until police ask why that sentence has not been signed again, Loyola remains where Thirunavukkarasu left it: inside the case, on his own testimony.
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